Konoha's Puppet User
by JayJay94
Summary: Naruto isolates himself from Konoha by moving into the woods outside of the village. Naruto meets a man by the name of Sasori, who after some careful thought decides to train Naruto as Konoha's first puppeteer and more importantly his own personal spy!
1. The Meeting

Hey guys, It's me again. This is just a combination of both a spark of inspiration and getting rid of some boredom that I wrote up during the past two days. I can't guarantee anything, because as I have said before I'm a very busy guy. I'm thinking my post time is going to vary greatly so don't count on anything. I don't own Naruto and have a good read. (:

* * *

Naruto grumbled unhappily, as he trudged through the forests outside of Konoha. He was finally fed up with the villagers hate for him, and he had fled his apartment to go live on his own. Naruto planned to find himself a home that was isolated from the city and live on his own until he could learn to defend himself and at an age of five that was difficult to accomplish.

There had been more than one occasion where a drunk had wrongfully beaten him up or thrown out of a store. He would definitely go back to Konoha when the time was right but the stress and anxiety of living in Konoha had built up to be unbearable.

Of course he had informed the Old Man Hokage about where he was going and he had agreed, but that was the only other person who knew. The Old Man was kind enough to offer to help him out with anything he needed, if asked. He also told Naruto that he would provide food for as long as he needed to. How he was going to do that, Naruto did not know, but he also did not really care as long as he was given food.

Sometimes Naruto thought the Old Man was the only person in Konoha with good intentions directed towards him, which was kind of sad in a village with a population over ten thousand. Although he didn't dwell on depressing thoughts such as that, preferring to stick to an optimistic point of view. Naruto was sure that he had barely even met a one hundredth of the population in Konoha and there had to be a bunch of nice people out there.

So he was out on his journey to find a new home and hopefully everyone would forget the "blond haired demon child" in time. That was pretty unlikely but everyone had dreams didn't they?

As Naruto kept on walking he started to feel like he was traveling in circles, especially since he had passed the same deformed rock that he had relieved himself on earlier. He stopped to look at the peculiar looking rock and spoke his suspicions out loud. He normally would not have noticed it, but Uzumaki Naruto never forgets where he takes a whizz.

* * *

Kurenai cursed as she realized her mistake was bad enough, that even an untrained little boy noticed. Luckily since the boy had no shinobi experience, no suspicion of a genjutsu was present. Quickly Kurenai changed the landscape in the illusion that she had cast on Naruto's mind and then concentrated a bit more to allow the forest to vary in form as Naruto continued to "walk". Occasionally she would create the image of a deer or squirrel to give the genjutsu a more realistic feel to it. It was a C-rank illusion that while simple enough to be a D-rank, it used up enough chakra to make the climb up to a C.

Currently she was on a top secret B-rank mission assigned to her specifically by the Sandaime Hokage because of her abilities with genjutsu and her indifference to the Kyuubi vessel. The mission was broken down into two parts. One of which was short term and the other long term.

The first part of the mission was to locate a spot inside the forest just outside of Konoha that would not be located easily by human civilization, ninja nor civilian, and then build Naruto a decent hut or shack of some sort, since he had decided to "leave" Konoha for the time being.

After that part was complete she was to place a long lasting genjutsu around the perimeter, with the help of seals supplied by the Sandaime, that could identify and allow only the Hokage, Kurenai, and Naruto with the ability to see or go near the home. The seals would also conceal the presence of any person inside the area of seals. Kurenai would then check up on Naruto every two days to see how he was doing and resupply food and water if it was needed. Of course when Kurenai had another mission, the Hokage would just send a clone in her stead.

It took both the Sandaime and Kurenai to work out the plans for such a complex genjutsu and the Sandaime had to convince Naruto to delay his departure for two days to create enough time for the plans to be made. Most importantly though was that all of this was to be done in secret without letting anyone know, not even Naruto. Even though Naruto thought that he was going off to live on his own, the Hokage would never actually let that happen.

At first she had protested about the mission, calling it a waste of her time and skills, but soon changed her mind from the Sandaime's reasoning. The Hokage had almost sounded desperate when he had told her that Naruto needed to be freed from the cruelty and uncaring villagers. Of course either way she would have taken the mission, knowing that it was her duty to accept and execute all missions, within reason, to the best of her ability, but that didn't mean she couldn't complain about it. While it would be time consuming it helped a great deal that the mission had an A-rank pay.

She had already placed the seals on the perimeter of a large square and was a third of the way finished on the hut, using the mud bunshin technique that the Hokage had taught her specifically for this situation. It was around one in the afternoon and Kurenai predicted that she would be finished with the house and the genjutsu would be cast by six P.M. at the latest. She would then break the genjutsu on Naruto and let him come across the house by himself. All simple and straight to the point.

Remembering that the day was Friday, Kurenai quickly redoubled her efforts, hoping that she could catch a bite to eat with Anko before the day was over.

* * *

After hours of walking to find the perfect place to build his home, Naruto stumbled upon a clearing with a nice looking hut in it. Curious as to whose home it was Naruto walked up to the front door to knock, but stopped short with his hand halfway to the doorknocker. There was a short letter taped to the door stating, _"__Naruto, this home has been built just for you and you will use it during your time in these woods. Always remember that I will be looking after you. From 'the Old Man'"_

Taking the note in his hand, Naruto opened the door to his new home and threw the few items he had brought onto the floor, as he absorbed the sight infront of him. Although he had wanted to have done everything himself this was a way better option.

The small hut had a cot in the corner to the right of the door, a large dresser on the right wall next to the hammock, a fireplace with instructions for use on the wall opposite the door, and finally a kitchen area on the left wall. When he checked the cabinets in the kitchen, it was fully equipped with eating utensils, dishes, and food. Naruto even found a stash of really warm clothes and blankets for the winter in the dresser.

As Naruto locked the door to his hut, to keep the cold out, he settled in on his cot and silently thanked the Old Man for his kindness.

* * *

**Six Months Later**

Naruto was now an exceptional outdoors man, able to hunt, trap, and navigate remarkably throughout the woods. He knew the rules of the wild and he was at the top of the food chain. Although there were times that he encountered other animals at the top too, such as bears. Thankfully those encounters were few and far between, usually caused by the smell of food. Fortunately neither bears nor any other predatory animal could roam near his home.

Naruto had even ditched his old orange jumpsuit for clothing better suited for hunting, found in his dresser. For his pants he had dirt colored cargo shorts and for his upper body he had a dark green undershirt and a green and brown camouflaged coat. Naruto was unhappy to depart from his orange but the bright colors scared his food away. And since the Old Man had stopped giving him food and water, he had to find the necessities himself. And unknown to Naruto, Kurenai's mission had been deemed complete once Naruto had proven that he could survive on his own.

One of the only problems in his situation was the loneliness that came along with it. Naruto had made a few trips to Konoha for visits to the Old Man or some camping gear, but other than the occasional ninja training, Naruto was completely cut off from civilization.

While his time was largely consumed by learning to live in the wild, Naruto knew that he would eventually run out of things to do, resulting in an extremely bored boy.

Standing up from his cot, Naruto walked outside to retrieve some more wood for his fire, but ground to a halt at the sight of a hunched over man covered in a pure black cloak, showing only the man's eyes and up, standing in the way. Naruto looked at the man in surprise and awe.

_Huh? He wasn't there a second ago. _Naruto piped up, "Hey who are you? And how did ya find me all the way out here?"

The odd man did not seem to hear the question and continued to stare intently at Naruto, deep in thought. Both the silence and the man's stare scared the crap out of Naruto, making him feel extremely awkward and tense. Whoever this man was, he definitely was not normal in the head.

Finally the man spoke after a few minutes, only answering one of the questions Naruto had asked. "I am Sasori of the Red Sands and you?"

Naruto grinned at the question. It wasn't often that he met someone that was this polite to him, no matter how weird they were. "Uzumaki Naruto! The best hunter in all of Konoha and beyond! Although I don't live in Konoha anymore, I plan to move back when I'm ready. And then I'm gonna be one of those cool ninja people. And then..."

Naruto continued on but Sasori stopped paying attention to the pointless rambling and focused on what the boy had said at the beginning of his introduction. If the boy wasn't living in Konoha but was planning to move back someday, then this would be a good opportunity to place a spy inside of Konoha, something that he was lacking lately. As long as he was loyal and proved to not be a total incompetent fool there was hope for the boy. He would start by training the boy in the ninja arts and later on if the boy proved loyal and competent enough, puppetry.

"Boy did you mention the desire to become a ninja? I can help you achieve this on one condition... Pledge your loyalty to me."

Naruto looked at the strange man in delight and wonder. Here this man was offering to make him a ninja and all he needed to give him was something called loyalty. He did not know what it was, but it probably wasn't too much to give.

He nodded and eagerly spoke, "Sure thing mister, I'll give you my... um, loyalty." Naruto gave his biggest and brightest smile to Sasori, hoping that it would convince him further.

Sasori chuckled at the boy's stupidity. He obviously did not know the meaning of loyalty, but if he could forge Naruto into his own personal soldier it would not matter.

* * *

Hmmmm what do you think? This is going to be a puppet Naruto fic as you can tell and I hope it does well. I don't know but it seems that all my stories revolve around Akatsuki members. Happy New Year!


	2. The Return

Hey all! It's been awhile hasn't it? Yea well I guess I just lost the will to write so I put it off for a couple months. Happens to everyone so don't be to harsh on me. Anyways enjoy. Oh and I don't own Naruto.

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**Four Years Later**

**Naruto- Age 9  
**

Sasori had been pleased to find that Naruto had indeed been a useful investment of his time. While at first he had just popped in every once in awhile to train the boy as a spy, he soon learned about Naruto's identity as holder of the Kyuubi. After that piece of information had been provided to him, Sasori had taken to training Naruto very often. To have a jinchuuriki at your disposal was an extreme and deadly advantage. However there was the obstacle of keeping them knowing each other a secret. So Naruto had been forbidden from displaying his training or even speaking of the subject.

The two would have scheduled meetings at a secluded place, away from Konoha. These would take place at night and were set by an interval known only to the two. Naruto had been instructed to always take a route that would lose anybody from following him. Sasori knew that the boy would not be able to lose any ninja that followed him, but that was why Sasori would not show himself unless he was sure there wasn't a stalker.

Soon however, that had proven to be unnecessary as Sasori had taught the boy stealth and the ability to sense chakra signatures. That was not his main focus for Naruto though. Sasori had started the training Naruto on the beautiful and long living art of puppetry.

The first thing that Sasori had noticed was that the boy was a genius when it came to thinking on the spur of the moment and in abstract terms. He had good instincts, that was a no brainer, but when Naruto tried to think over things rather than relying on those instincts, it put him at a disadvantage. It amazed Sasori that a person could be a genius in instincts but a dunce in rational thinking.

Another flaw that Sasori found was that the boy had horrendous chakra control. Thankfully the weakness had been caught early on, allowing it to be fixed with exercises like tree walking and water walking. Sasori shuddered at the thought of how bad Naruto's chakra control would have been later on, when his reserves were larger and chakra coils were more developed. Luckily if he kept on improving the control as he grew, then it would not worsen.

After Naruto's control had been deemed sufficient, the lesson of chakra strings came. It had not been easy to learn, but the jinchuuriki had stayed determined and worked a great many hours to get the technique down. While currently the number of fully functioning puppets Naruto could control with both hands was two, he would soon be able to increase that number.

Then the lessons on actually using a puppet had arrived and they had gone surprisingly very well. Naruto could take a technique, perfect it, then push it to new levels. His ability had grown so rapidly that in just a few years Naruto was skillful enough to give a few of Suna's puppeteers a run for their money. And that was an amazing achievement.

Finally Sasori had taught Naruto how to create his own puppets, with the most efficiency and lethal effectiveness. And to do that, Naruto had to know how to find and mix poisons, and to become proficient with the use of weapons. He also needed to always make his puppet's attacks unexpected, else the enemy could render it useless. When creating puppets, Sasori urged his pupil to find his own style of puppets making.

Other than those teachings, Naruto had learned very little from Sasori. Puppetry had been the main focus, since Sasori had figured that Naruto could learn everything else at the Academy.

Sasori had taught Naruto all that he could about puppetry in four years and now that time was up. Since the Academy would start in just a few weeks, Naruto would have to move back to Konoha. And as good of a ninja Sasori was, even he could not manage to sneak into such a powerful village. Although Sasori would still remain as his sensei, he would not take a part of his training for a while.

* * *

Naruto stood before the Hokage with an unblinking gaze. It had been over a year and a half since they had last seen each other. The Sandaime too gazed at the boy, judging his appearance to see how much had changed in the boy. Soon they both cracked a smile and Naruto jumped over the desk, startling the Sandaime with a hug, screaming jiji as he did so.

The Hokage looked at Naruto with an amused smiled and awkwardly patted his head. "My Naruto-kun, you sure have grown quite a bit since I've seen you last. Tell me are you ready to finally come back to Konoha and begin the academy?"

Of course the Sandaime already knew the answer was yes, since the boy had already moved all of his things into a new apartment, suspiciously located next to Ichikiraku's Ramen Bar right down the street.

Naruto quickly jumped out of the Hokage's lap, and leaped back over the desk to stand on one of the chairs. He quickly took a pose, eerily resembling Jiraiya, and shouted a reply, "You bet Jiji! I'm gonna be out of there in no time and then I'll be one step closer to taking that hat away from you."

At that Hiruzen chuckled at the antics of the boy. "Oh I'm sure you will my boy, but first you have to make it through the academy. Do not think that it will be just a walk in the park. Remember to study and work as hard as you possibly can. Especially since many of your peers will have already received training from their clan." As he said this, the Hokage studied Naruto's face closely to gauge his reaction to the latter statement and to his surprise Naruto started laughing.

Naruto jumped down from his chair and immediately became serious, something that made the Sandaime anxious. He spoke in a sober tone, "Jiji I have to tell you something about these past few years. I have received training from a nukenin named Sasori of the Red Sands in the art of puppetry," The Sandaime stood up swiftly and placed his hands on the desk, with widened eyes. "And he plans to use me as a spy in Konoha."

The Sandaime took a moment to stare incredulously at the boy before he spoke, "Obviously you do not plan to actually go through with that as you have just revealed it to me, but that does not guarantee that i can fully trust you at the moment. If you would allow one of my ninja to sift through your memories, it would abolish any suspicion of you."

Naruto nodded his head in agreement. "Of course, I totally understand even though having someone go through my head is kinda freaky, you know? Anyways if I am proven not guilty I would be happy to give the knowledge to Konoha. It would get rid of an advantage that Suna-nin had over us."

The Sandaime slowly sat down again, after his nerves had calmed. "Yes what you said is true and is very thoughtful of you Naruto. I am glad to see that you are contributing to the greater good of Konoha." He looked through a couple files on his desk and handed Naruto a small piece of paper as he spoke, "Now I need you to go to this address at around 6 o'clock tonight. Just tell the person at the desk that the Hokage sent you for a check-up and you will be directed where to go."

"Alright old man, I'm not gonna enjoy this, but at least it will get you to trust me right?" The Sandaime nodded causing Naruto to give a bright smile, "And can I ask you to keep everything about my relationship with Sasori a secret? He still thinks that I will be his spy and I would like to keep it that way so in the future I might learn more from him."

The Sandaime narrowed his eyes, "Naruto-kun that is a very dangerous thing to do. The more contact that you have with this man the bigger the possibility that he will find out about all of this and kill you."

"I know jiji, but I want to get as much information from him on puppetry as possible. I know that he hasn't shown me everything he could on the subject."

The Sandaime gave a long sigh, "Very well I will do as you have asked and allow you to _remain_ as his spy."

With that Naruto gave another smile, "OK now give me all the details on what I need to do to get in the Academy, jiji."

* * *

**A Few Weeks Later**

Naruto sat in the back row of the Academy classroom, between the two other students that he been assigned to sit with. Both had not even said a word to him. Since he had always been quite the talkative guy, it always unnerved him to stay in such a silence. Naruto quickly took a glance to his left where the girl was sitting. She had the most peculiar eyes, with no pupil and entirely white. He did not know her name and he could tell that she was not in a position to even try to introduce herself.

To put it simply, she looked like she was about to piss her pants from fright. The girl's was darting her eyes back and forth, as if she expected an enemy to attack her at any moment. She seemed to be trying to make herself as small and unnoticeable as possible by curling up into a ball, and Naruto thought that if she was given even one little surprise that she might faint. It made him wonder what kind of person expected such a fragile girl to become a ninja. Overall Naruto judged that the girl would not be much of a threat.

Naruto took a peek to his right at the boy wearing a high collared coat and sunglasses. He could tell that this boy was much more suited the lifestyle of a ninja. Sunglasses, as he referred to him since he did not know his name, was quiet and inconspicuous. He did not try to stand out in a crowd unlike some of the other students in the class, such as a braggart by the name of Inuzuka Kiba or Yamanaka Ino. And while Naruto was normally a loud person, he never bragged about his abilities or achievements. Well unless of course it was about becoming the Hokage, but that was a goal that had become personal.

Naruto turned back to stare at the sensei of the classroom, Umino Iruka, who had droned on and on about curriculum of the following years and what it was to be a ninja. It was all an extremely boring lecture that he had all but tuned out after the first couple of sentences. He had preferred to gauge the potential of the other would be ninja in the classroom. So far he had found maybe 20 of the total 34 students in the class to actually become successful ninja. Of course looks could be deceiving and Naruto had not even seen the others in action yet, so he could not make and final assumptions.

Suddenly Naruto looked down to his arm and flicked a bug off the sleeve. He had not thought anything of it until that bug flew over to Sunglasses' open hand. Sunglasses stared at the bug for a little while and then turned to Naruto. "You have had training in the use of chakra before."

Naruto fully turned his body to stare at Sunglasses. _'Okay, Sunglasses is even better than I thought he was.' _He answered the statement slowly, "Yea I have... How do you know that?"

Sunglasses gave a curt nod and smiled slightly. "My clan specializes in the use of a species of insect known as the Destruction Bug. The Destruction Bug feeds on chakra. May I inquire on your experience in chakra use?"

Naruto nodded in understanding at the explanation that Sunglasses gave. He glanced around to make sure no one was eavesdropping. While he did not mind telling of his abilities, he did not want it be announced to the whole class. "I'm a puppeteer. I use a technique called chakra strings to control puppets from a distance. I would show you a bit but I'd rather not have the whole class know. Oh yea by the way I'm Uzumaki Naruto."

Sunglasses nodded with what looked like contentment, but Naruto wasn't too sure, and turned to face Iruka once more. "I am Aburame Shino. It is nice to meet you, Uzumaki-san."

_'Man this kid is weird'_ Naruto muttered a yea in reply and then he too looked back at the sensei.

"Um... N-Naruto-san I am H-Hyuuga Hinata." Naruto looked over to the girl from earlier to see that she was trembling and looked to be having a battle within herself. "I-I have a b-bloodline in my eyes t-that has penetrating vision in a f-field of 360 degrees."

_'Hmmm, I was wrong about her. She may be a push-over in her personality but the abilities of her bloodline override that weakness.' _

Naruto gave Hinata a bright smile, making her blush slightly. He could tell that she had much difficulty in mustering up the courage to talk to him. "It's nice to meet ya, Hinata! That is a pretty cool bloodline. I'm actually pretty jealous of you, cause it would be awesome to be able to see through things."

Hinata blushed a bit more and seemed to take a look of relief on her face. She spoke with a little less timidness, "Y-yes it is useful to have." Then as a gloomy afterthought she said, "B-but my father says t-that I am n-not very good at it and t-that even my y-younger sister is b-better."

Hinata looked down at her desk, and if you looked hard enough you could see tears rolling down her cheeks.

Naruto watched the girl start to cry and he began to panic. If people saw that Hinata started to cry while talking to him, then they would have bad impressions about him. He quickly placed his hand on her shoulder and spoke with what he thought was a soothing voice. "Hey don't cry, cheer up. If your not very good at it right now, then just work hard and practice, so you can improve."

Hinata nodded slightly at his words and rubbed at her eyes to get rid of the tears. "I d-do work hard, b-but it's n-not enough for him."

"Well then if he knows that your trying the best you can and still doubts you, then you shouldn't care what he thinks. He's a jerk and you don't deserve to be treated that way."

She nodded again and tried to smile unsuccessfully.

"Anyways since you and Sunglasses over here are the only two people that I know right now, how about we eat lunch together today?" Naruto looked to Shino, who looked confused by the nickname Naruto gave him. "That cool with you Sunglasses?"

Both just nodded slowly without saying a word.

* * *

I think that is enough for one chapter, don'tcha think? Oh and do any of you understand how annoying it is to write dialogue for Hinata? I can't describe how tiring it got and I only wrote a couple sentences for her! Anyways hope you guys liked the read!


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